Biomarker Development for Discrimination of Different Geographical Origin on Mud loach (Misgurnus mizolepis) Using Metabolites Analysis

Abstract

Mud loach has long been a consumed species in Korea due to its nutritional excellence and good flavor. There is a case in which a Chinese mud loach is deceived into an expensive Korean mud loach because of its taste and preference. This study analyzed metabolites of different geographical origins of mud loach using LC-QTOF/MS. PCA was performed to identify the group association of mud loach. OPLS-DA from LC-MS data sets showed a clear distinction between Korean and Chinese mud loach. The OPLS-DA model with 0.90 for R2Y and 0.86 for Q2 in positive ion mode, 0.92 for R2Y and 0.9 for Q2 in negative ion mode is suitable and well validated. Univariate statistical analysis results showed significantly different metabolites between Korean and Chinese samples. N-acetylhistidine and anserine were selected as a biomarker for discrimination of origin through the ROC curve. Quantitative analysis of biomarkers showed that two metabolites of Chinese mud loach were significantly higher than those of Korean. This results indicated that the metabolic analysis could discriminate the geographical origins of mud loach.